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San José

On Tuesday, December 18, 2018 the San José City Council adopted its Energy and Water Building Performance Ordinance. The ordinance requires owners of commercial and multifamily buildings over 20,000 square feet to benchmark their properties' energy and water use. The City will make a subset of that data transparent to the public. The law also requires building owners whose buildings do not meet energy and water performance standards to take action to improve their performance. These owners have the option to conduct an energy and water audit, "retune" the building's operations, or implement improvements from a list of options specified by the City.

Owners of residential properties that are smaller than 50,000 square feet are exempt from the performance improvement pathway for water efficiency if the property is not sub-metered for water use.

Transparency:

Required Transparency:

Yes

Transparency Method:

Public Website

Transparency Trigger:

Date Certain

Frequency:

Annually

Reporting:

Required Reporting:

No

Utility Requirements/Support:

Utility Requirements/Support:

No

Verification:

Verification:

No

Notes:

Owners may establish satisfactory energy and water efficiency by providing a "performance verification report" to the department in such a form as required by the Director of the implementing department.

Compliance:

Compliance Enforcement:

Yes

Penalties for Non-Compliance:

Yes

Additional Program Information:

Audits:

Yes

Owners of buildings that do not meet the ordinance's performance standard may choose to take one of three performance pathways to comply. For the audit pathway, owners must conduct an ASHRAE level 2 energy audit or an energy audit offered by utilities serving the property. For water audits, the owner must use a water audit based on industry standard practices that at minimum covers the potable water distribution systems; the landscape irrigation systems; the water reuse systems; and the water features.

Retrocommissioning:

Yes

Owners of buildings that do not meet the ordinance's performance standard may choose to take one of three performance pathways to comply. For the retrocommissioning pathway, owners must have a retrocommissioning process performed in accordance with industry standard practices, including ASHRAE Guideline 0.2, Commissioning Process for Existing Systems and Assemblies.
For buildings that do not have a central cooling system and that does meet the performance standards of the ordinance, they may comply with the ordinance by implementing two efficiency improvements from a list of possible measures.

Water Use Tracking:

Yes

Policy Description:

On Tuesday, December 18, 2018 the San José City Council adopted its Energy and Water Building Performance Ordinance. The ordinance requires owners of commercial and multifamily buildings over 20,000 square feet to benchmark their properties' energy and water use. The City will make a subset of that data transparent to the public. The law also requires building owners whose buildings do not meet energy and water performance standards to take action to improve their performance. These owners have the option to conduct an energy and water audit, "retune" the building's operations, or implement improvements from a list of options specified by the City.

Owners of residential properties that are smaller than 50,000 square feet are exempt from the performance improvement pathway for water efficiency if the property is not sub-metered for water use.

Transparency:

Required Transparency:

Yes

Transparency Method:

Public Website

Transparency Trigger:

Date Certain

Frequency:

Annually

Reporting:

Required Reporting:

No

Utility Requirements/Support:

Utility Requirements/Support:

No

Verification:

Verification:

Yes

Notes:

Owners may establish satisfactory energy and water efficiency by providing a "performance verification report" to the department in such a form as required by the Director of the implementing department.

Compliance:

Compliance Enforcement:

Yes

Penalties for Non-Compliance:

Yes

Additional Program Information:

Audits:

Yes

Owners of buildings that do not meet the ordinance's performance standard may choose to take one of three performance pathways to comply. For the audit pathway, owners must conduct an ASHRAE level 2 energy audit or an energy audit offered by utilities serving the property. For water audits, the owner must use a water audit based on industry standard practices that at minimum covers the potable water distribution systems; the landscape irrigation systems; the water reuse systems; and the water features.

Retrocommissioning:

Yes

Owners of buildings that do not meet the ordinance's performance standard may choose to take one of three performance pathways to comply. For the retrocommissioning pathway, owners must have a retrocommissioning process performed in accordance with industry standard practices, including ASHRAE Guideline 0.2, Commissioning Process for Existing Systems and Assemblies.
For buildings that do not have a central cooling system and that does meet the performance standards of the ordinance, they may comply with the ordinance by implementing two efficiency improvements from a list of possible measures.